In article <BB2D582B.433E%eschaal@max.hi-ho.ne.jp>,
 Ernest Schaal <eschaal@max.hi-ho.ne.jp> wrote:

> Actually, I heard it from a variety of sources, including my wife, a friend,
> and an opinion article in the Japan Times.

And they all said that women "would never give birth in Japan because 
the Japanese male-dominate (sic) medical profession dismisses their pain 
as unimportant"?  Your addition of "in Japan" here is interesting, as 
well as the fact that you did not specify Japanese women (although the 
latter could perhaps be assumed).

> As to your point about the third world countries, social customs have an
> overpowering force there. In Japan, social customs are weakening, and
> Japanese women have woke up to the fact that they have choices, including
> the choice not to have children if that means having them without pain
> medication. It is similar to the Indian women who are waking up to their
> choices and are fight back against brutal Indian customs, like burning wives
> who don't bring enough dowry.

Ah, so Japanese women *do* want to have children, it's just that one day 
they suddenly woke up and thought, "hang that, I might want a child, but 
not that much," and started to refuse impregnation?

The lack of pain-control here is the constant, so it must be some other 
factor that has changed, and in fact you point it out yourself: The low 
birth-rate in Japan is due to the fact that social customs are 
weakening.  Japanese women just don't want to have children that much, 
and refuse to sacrifice their own personal interests, and now Japanese 
society lets them make this choice.

Let's completely ignore the large financial burden that comes with 
raising a child in Japan, that certainly has nothing to do with it.

BTW, I like the way you compare this issue to immolation of Indian 
brides.  It really helps to make Japanese men - not just doctors, 
because after all, they are all part of this conspiracy, eh - seem more 
evil and diabolical.

So from this comparison of yours I suppose you think the large number of 
women who decide to give birth without the use of pain-killers are 
suicidal masochists who have made a choice on par with setting 
themselves on fire?

-- 
Rodney Webster
http://knot.mine.nu/